Eileen Lepetit

 I've been working on creating my own recipes starting with this brownie-cookie hybrid. And yes, I am cooking on a sheet of plywood these days, but it just goes to show you don't need a fancy kitchen to make good food. INGREDIENTS: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking powder 8 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate (2 four ounce bars) 1/2 cup (one stick) softened butter* 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon of vanilla 1/2 bag mini chocolate chips (use a bit less if you only have the full size chips) *Make sure your butter is soft enough to mix. I can leave butter out all day at my house and it will still be too hard to use, so I have to do things you should not do like semi-melt it in a warm oven. This is usually bad for making soft cookies, but it is COLD in here. RECIPE: 1 cup all purpose flour 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp baking powder Mix these together with a fork and set aside. Chop up two bars of semi-sweet chocolate...

CHAPTER 20 My intention of sending Lucas to the living room is a good one but, in the end I don’t do it. Not because I have no self-control - which I don’t - but because we are both too exhausted and fall asleep before either one of us means to. I realize this because when I wake up in the middle of the night, Lucas is beside me, fully clothed as he is a knight. It isn’t Lucas’ presence that wakes me up, though. It is a disturbance, a feeling that something just isn’t right. I feel like I have had enough of that for a lifetime, but I know better than to think that just because I finished off Eoin, I am finished completely. The disturbance comes in the form of a sort of tugging, a pull that reaches through the dark, sleeping household and the empty shop. Something - or maybe someone - wants my attention. I glance at Lucas. I could wake him up, but after everything I have done, I doubt there is a situation that I won’t be able to handle. Better to let him have a few hours of peace. Slip...

CHAPTER 19 The aunts are significantly less bossy now that I have killed a Ripper and brought down a building. They are also grieving the death of their sister. In the end, they are simply helpful and accommodating, creating stories that cover up the bizarre events of the day that have been witnessed by many. Before they leave, they instruct us to go to bed as normal and to expect that Nana will pass away in her sleep of a cardiac event. They will phone it in for us, pretending to be Miranda. In the meantime, my grandmother’s endless sleep continues. Lucas follows me upstairs. “Do you want to see her?” he asks. “I can go with you if you’d like.” I shake my head. “She isn’t there anymore,” I answer. “Just in here,” I put a finger on my forehead, “and here.” I move my finger to my heart. “And somehow I think if I need her, she will be with me.” He nods and we find ourselves standing awkwardly in front of one another in the dark hallway. “Come to my room,” I finally say, taking his hand....

CHAPTER 18 The sign on the shop door is flipped to Closed but the place is packed with people. Lucas reaches out a hand to open the door for me, but I tug his sleeve, stopping him. Inside that store is everyone I love, minus one: Nana. She is there, not asleep, but dead. I will never see her or hear her voice again, never be able to ask her advice or push her away and pretend I don’t want it. There won’t be anyone to take my side against Miranda, to let me know - kindly - when I’m being a bitch. Most of all, the one person who provided me with pure, unconditional love is gone forever. I can’t go in there. Not just yet. Lucas looks down, understanding. He takes my hand and leads me to a frozen bench a few yards up the block by the bus stop. “I’m sorry about your grandmother,” he says, gently rubbing my cold fingers. I nod, the tears and snot starting to flow again. “I just...I feel like as long as I don’t go in there, it won’t be real, you know? Like maybe the vision I had was just a ...

CHAPTER 17 I reset the spell on the fence so Eoin won’t know I’ve been playing with it. It glows a nice bright red. Likewise, I quickly healed up Lucas and Nick’s wounds and stashed Gae Buidhe back under my sweatshirt. We sit down on the floor looking dirty and miserable, exactly the way they left us. “So?” Eoin steps up in front of the crate looking, if anything, cleaner and more handsome than before. “Have we developed some foolproof scheme of escape or have you come to your senses?” “I’ve decided to stand by my answer of shove it,” I say from my spot on the floor. Eoin’s hands reflexively form fists by his side. “Charming,” he says. “You are nothing if not consistent. I assume you’ve said goodbye to your friends? Or perhaps not. Perhaps you persist in believing in your ultimate victory. It’s always that way, fighting to the bitter end. But as you see, I and my kind, have always prevailed.” He turns to the two dozen drones who have crowded into the room, their gray, nearly non-exist...

CHAPTER 16 “Shall we all sit?” the Ripper says. He does as he suggests, settling behind the desk. He nods at the drones and they lead Nick, whose eyes look everywhere but at any of us, to a white leather sofa. They push him down to sitting, but he isn’t exactly resisting. Lucas they let tumble heavily to the floor. He is bloody, filthy, and unconscious. His shirt hangs off. They have stripped him of his weapons. “I suppose I should introduce myself,” the Ripper says like I care. “The name is Eoin. I am only one of our little troupe, but I have been given the honor of working with you. I am known for my powers of persuasion.” He smiles like we’re closing a real estate deal. “I think we should take a minute, breathe as it were, and make sure that we are all understanding the situation clearly.” “You’re going to kill us all?” I wonder if Lucas is even alive. He looks terrible and I’m suddenly overwhelmed with remorse at the crappy way I’ve treated him these past few days since discov...